With the continued popularity of Light Rock Fishing, it perplexed me that there are not more detailed guides on mini-fish species. Having spent all of 2016 species hunting, I wanted to put my own mini-guides out there for the intrepid LRF angler, starting with one of the biggest and, in most places, rarest rockpool predator. [...]

Bizarre, aggressive and athletic – there are few more entertaining fish than the gar. A streamlined pelagic predator, they become a regular catch to shore anglers from late summer to winter’s beginning. Following the baitfish shoals along with the mackerel; fisherfolk all around the country can quite realistically go out and catch one. But why [...]

Ever wondered why there’s always a few less ducklings every time you wander past your local pond? Well, I did; so I designed a fly to catch the culprits! In this article I will show you step by step, how to make a duckling fly. Firstly, let me apologise for both the photos and the [...]

In the 1800’s the Californians had the great Rush in shades of Gold, this week in the South West we’ve had our own in shades of blue, silver and black… Yes, the Mackerel are here, and they are here in huge numbers. With the combined help of social media, word of mouth and good ol’ [...]

If you’re looking for true ‘heavy metal’ fishing, there is one form of fishing in the UK that guarantees arm-wrenching fights, scrambling over jagged rocks and battered lures – and that’s lure fishing for Ballan Wrasse. There are a million and one articles and how-to’s on this technique but I absolutely love it and can’t [...]

The Wishbone rig is a firm favourite amongst anglers targeting flat fish, especially Plaice, Flounder and Dabs. The main advantage of the wishbone rig, is it allows two hooks to be fished on the sea bed. It is normally used with small to medium sized baits, otherwise everything become too bulky, making casting difficult. When I make [...]

It’s been a tough few weeks recently with the miserable weather conditions and the water clarity of mud it’s all too easy to go a bit stir crazy stuck in the house. So let me try and bring some knowledge and inspiration to you from my new friend and LRF fishing expert Age Lundstrom. Age is [...]

What’s the best fishing rig? At fishingtails we are constantly asked to recommend the rigs we use and show how we make them. In this, the first of our rig articles, I want to show you how to make an Up and Over Rig. The Up and Over Rig is used to target larger fish, [...]

BARBLESS BASS FISHING…. Here’s my latest Video focusing on Bass welfare in an effort to stay within the law and do my bit for the Bass society and minimise the wasteful, no doubt about it, discard factor!, by that tI mean it’s currently mandatory to put back Bass,alive or dead!, which I personally disagree with [...]

For years now I have been looking to get the best out of my fishing catching the odd big fish obviously helps but I grew tired of skull dragging a 3oz pout in with 6oz of weight with a 13ft beachcaster, that’s just no fun! So to have more sport I wanted to scale down some [...]

What is Eging? Basically its fishing for squid with special jigs made to look like prawns or in Japanese “egi”. In its most simple form it’s jigging for squid with a selection of different lures but like most things if you are prepared to dig a bit deeper into the subtleties of the technique the rewards [...]

I was recently invited out on a squid fishing trip by an old fishingtails pal Marlon and having never really specifically fished for squid before I thought it would be fun to try for a new species. I had heard that some good catches had been made in the last week with ten or fifteen squid [...]

Roker Pier is situated on the coast of the beautiful city of Sunderland and is a brilliant venue which can offer outstanding fishing for anglers throughout the year. At the beginning of the year rumors started among anglers that the pier would be closed to carry out construction work in the summer of 2015. Thankfully the [...]

Smoothound’s are a shallow water species and so being either on the South Coast or the West of the UK, having lots of shallow coastlines, we are lucky enough to be in the most common areas where they are caught. However with more and more anglers catching and releasing these shark like fish, their range [...]

Lugworm, in my opinion, is one of the most under-rated baits there is. When you think about what we all think fish prefer to eat, we think of blood, guts, smell etc and Lugworm is one of the best baits which fit all of these criteria. Couple that with the fact that Lugworm is one [...]

What is a Peeler Crab, and how do I collect them? These are two of the most common questions I get asked. and hopefully I will be able to answer those questions in this article. In my mind there are very few baits that are better than Peeler Crabs. All manner of fish love them, [...]

There is one thing fishermen and scuba divers have in common – fish. We are both fascinated by them. Experienced fishermen know where and when to hunt certain species, but us divers know what they are like underwater, and that trumps everything else. I’m sorry but it does. Fishermen have no idea that a sole covers [...]

What is the best colour lure for Bass fishing, or does it even matter? I recently read an article written by Steve Starling, which I have had permission to include in this post. I will let you read it, then you can read my observations at the end of it. Steve ‘Starlo’ is Australia’s most [...]

Over the winter period my beach casting rod has been used and abused. As a result some of the rings have become damaged or broken. I decided that the rod needed a thorough overhaul and replace all the rings completely. I shopped around for some prices to have the rings professionally repaired and was shocked [...]

There was a time when waders were normally only worn by fly fishermen on rivers, but these days I see anglers using them in lots of different situations. They are pretty common amongst fishermen in the North East, targeting the Cod from the rock ledges, and I spend more than half my fishing time in [...]

Cod fishing holds a certain magic for many sea anglers, and all the signs are in place that this year is going to be one of the best Cod seasons we have had for a very long time. ALthough this article is written around Chesil beach marks, the techniques can be applied for any mark [...]

Mullet have a reputation for being very difficult to catch; how many times have you wandered around a harbour and spotted loads of Mullet? Do you think to yourself, how can I catch one of those? In this article written by Darren Herbert, owner of the tackle box in Lyme Regis he goes through the [...]

You can’t really expect too much from a mobile phone picture is the current held belief? Well a few years ago I did a test. I took a picture on a £2500 camera and another on a pretty old Blackberry. I then showed them in a talk on how to improve your photography and asked [...]

Why do my fish pictures look rubbish? It’s a question many a fisherman has asked me. Because with trembling hands they hold up their best catch of the week, month or even year and smile at their friend holding the camera or phone and there’s a click and then disappointment. Their best fish looks like [...]

I am delighted that we are going to run a number of features written By Gavin Parsons on photography. Gavin is a professional photographer, and approached me last year to see if we could work together on a couple of projects. Having spent a lot of time with Gavin, we have now become good friends. I [...]

I attended my first sea fishing match last weekend. I was excited but also nervous. What would it be like? How much space will I have? Would my casting be awful? Will I catch any fish at all? These are just some of the questions and worries that went through my head in the run [...]

Is there any Cod on Chesil yet? You better believe it! Cod fever is already sweeping the angling community on the South coast. For the past 3 weeks I have been hearing of a few Codling coming in here and there. I had played t down as a few early or misplaced fish, or some [...]

Sandeel’s are the mainstay diet for many UK fish species including Bass, Cod, Whiting, Turbot and Rays to name but a few. Bass and Rays are particularly fond of them. Without a doubt live Sandeels are an exceptional bait, and could arguably be classed as the best live bait you can use. However obtaining, keeping, presenting and [...]

I was really excited when I heard that the Mullet had finally come back into Weymouth Harbour, after what seems to me to be the longest winter I can remember. I had a trip down to the harbour on Sunday and I can tell you the Mullet were around in large numbers. I spotted at [...]

Peeler Crab is arguably the best shore fishing bait available. It is also the most expensive bait, unless you collect your own. I was surprised at the number of anglers that don’t use it simply because they don’t know how to hook and rig it. I guess at a £1 a crab I can understand [...]

I will be totally honest here and say that most of this article is not my own work. I was about to do a post on rigging weedless lures when I noticed that Steve Butler, a fellow Scotsman and friend of mine now living in Cornwall had created just what I needed. So with his [...]

Perhaps not the wonder bait, but certainly one of the most over looked and under used cheap bait sources that we have. Mussels are a good alternative to peeler crab and a lot cheaper. In this article I am going to show you how to prepare and use them. Mussels are available from Cornwall to [...]